Public Administration

Dr. Emrich is an Endowed Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Public Administration within the School of Public Administration and a founding member of the newly formed National Center for Integrated Coastal Research at University of Central Florida. His research interests include the application of geospatial web-based technologies to emergency management planning and practice, long term recovery from disaster, and the intersection of social vulnerability and community resilience in the face of disaster. From 2004 – 2007 he provided geospatial support for response and long term recovery to the state of Florida and has since been actively involved in identifying trends in long term recovery for coastal Mississippi and supervising FEMA’s public assistance web-transparency initiative for the gulf coast. Dr. Emrich is a strong advocate of the transition of knowledge from academia and research into real-world applications. He has been a key player in the development of theory, data, metrics, methods, applications, and spatial analytical models for understanding the newly emergent field of hazard vulnerability science and the often very different pattern of disaster recovery across communities.

This course will focus on introductory topics of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and is designed for persons who have are interested in acquiring the baseline knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to independently generate cartographic and geospatial products.

By the end of this course, students must independently:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of Geographic Information Systems.
2. Demonstrate ability to 'think spatially'.
3. Demonstrate a solid understanding of the technical, scientific, and organizational aspects of a GIS project management.
4. Identify the major components of ArcGIS and what they are used for.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of standard spatial data formats used in GIS.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of common GIS data structures such as vector and raster.
7. Understand the importance of coordinate systems in GIS.
8. Identify commonly used map projections and distortions associated with them.
9. Be able to work with tables within a GIS.
10. Perform attribute and spatial queries.
11. Demonstrate an understanding of how spatial data sets can be combined and compared using location of features as the criterion to solve real world
problems.
12. Identify and describe commonly used map overlay functions.
13. Demonstrate an understanding of common data entry methods like geocoding, digitizing and editing data.

PAD6716: Information Systems for Public Managers and Planners

This course will focus on introductory topics of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and is designed for persons who have are interested in acquiring the baseline knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to independently generate cartographic and geospatial products.

By the end of this course, students must independently:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of Geographic Information Systems.
2. Demonstrate ability to 'think spatially'.
3. Demonstrate a solid understanding of the technical, scientific, and organizational aspects of a GIS project management.
4. Identify the major components of ArcGIS and what they are used for.
5. Demonstrate an understanding of standard spatial data formats used in GIS.
6. Demonstrate an understanding of common GIS data structures such as vector and raster.
7. Understand the importance of coordinate systems in GIS.
8. Identify commonly used map projections and distortions associated with them.
9. Be able to work with tables within a GIS.
10. Perform attribute and spatial queries.
11. Demonstrate an understanding of how spatial data sets can be combined and compared using location of features as the criterion to solve real world
problems.
12. Identify and describe commonly used map overlay functions.
13. Demonstrate an understanding of common data entry methods like geocoding, digitizing and editing data.

PAD6938: Hazards Analysis and Disaster Planning

This course examines the geo-spatial aspects of hazards analysis and planning with specific reference to disaster preparedness, recovery, mitigation, and resilience. Hazards planning and analysis occurs through all phases of the emergency management cycle from pre-event (preparedness), but is equally important post-event especially in mitigation and recovery.
Effective emergency management stems from the ability to convert and operationalize the knowledge created by hazards research, especially from the social sciences, into practice largely through the application of geospatial analyses. This course 1) provides an historical overview of hazards assessment and planning within the United States including the legal frameworks such as the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 and its amendments; 2) introduces the conceptual and theoretical background to hazards analysis including issues related to scale, data collection and aggregation, hazard models, and metrics for vulnerability and resilience; 3) introduces analytical tools used in hazards and vulnerability assessments; and 4) illustrates the application of existing hazards research on planning and analysis into contemporary practice. Using a combination of learning styles ranging from reading, lectures, and in class discussions to more active engagement with online discussions, blogs, GIS labs, and hands-on exercises, the course illustrates how the principles of the geographical sciences tailored to hazards analysis are translated into useful information for practitioners.